Adam The God

He's not on the verge of becoming an A grader. He is an A grader. He's elite in all the categories that matter for an inside mid.

We'll agree to disagree then.

No, no I wouldn't.

But hang on mate. If you agree that he clearly performed better than Viney and yet polled less FD votes, you're essentially backing up what I've said here. The coaches underrated him. McCartney is no longer there. Interesting. And despite Viney having a weaker season, you're saying the coaches still gave him more votes than Oliver because Oliver is capable of more? It doesn't make sense. Oliver will be at Melbourne next year. I'm talking about the end of 2021. And Oliver and Franklin are not comparable. If Hawthorn had lost Sam Mitchell then I'd agree with you. They also wouldn't have won all those flags without him. This post is an example of how Melbourne fans underrate Oliver. He hasn't missed a match since his first season. If he was out of our midfield, you'd see a distinctly weaker outfit. Each to their own, mate. As I've said above, you'll notice how good Oliver is when he's not there, but because he plays every match, it's pretty hard to see. I loved Schwarta. A unique talent, but I rate midfielders higher. Midfielders win premierships. Yep, that's what I'm referring to. He said "just because of the way I have played my football and I suppose my attitude towards team-first football I have always been drawn to performing team roles." He might think it's team first to play rugby and Goodwin may love it, but 8 years in the system and still making our midfield run into each other.

Yep and far more consistent and durable.

And coaches should love the guy that makes our entire midfield tick....

It's not even a discussion for me. The guy is an out and out star.

Yeah, I think Fritsch's deficiencies present a problem for us. I agree with @Hannibal Inc. and you here, Bob. He's certainly a natural forward target, the concern I have is his defensive game, given the style we're trying to play. I don't think we can carry 2, let alone 3 'talls' that don't tackle and are ordinary at bringing ground level pressure. I wonder what Yze thinks of our forward set up. Hawthorn managed to play Franklin, Roughead and Gunston in the one forwardline, but had Rioli, Puopolo and Breust at their feet. Those three smalls not only brought x factor, goal smarts and were natural goal kickers, they brought brilliant ground level pressure. Brown, Weideman and Fritsch are similar types to those Hawthorn 3 or could be in tandem, albeit not as talented. We then have Pickett and somehow have to fit Jackson in (I agree he'll play, but where best to play him?) and are still lacking the goal smarts and goal kickers like Puopolo and Breust. Petracca rolling through there probably takes one of them, but we need at least 1 or 2 others. Jack Higgins would be a great target for us and anyone else of similar ilk. We are crying out for zippy forwards that can apply pressure and hit the scoreboard to balance out these three talls. Would love Brent Daniels too. I wonder if there's a way we can get him via Preuss.

16th October 2020 and I'm worried mate. Viney needs to STFU in public and bring people together, not divide. That is leadership.

I want them all cleared out. Turns out Goodwin will stay, but if he doesn't get this team playing well early next year he should get the axe. I'm sick of the under performance (sure, let's contribute some of that to the age profile of the list), but now that our better players are getting restless, I've very little tolerance for slip ups from here. If Pert wants to keep his job much past 2021, he'll have the same attitude.

I've said this so many times now, but I've only been alive 33 years. He's the best player we've ever had in that time. The club needs to sort it out asap and pay him what he wants. If we lose him, we're stuffed. As for new memberships, my read on some of the supporter base is they completely underrate and undervalue him, and it's clear that the coaches do too.

I think it's more complicated than that.

It wasn't directed at you mate. It was directed at half the posts on Clarry this season and since the season finished. I don't particularly care how the coaches voted in the BnF. It was as clear as day that Oliver was our second or third best player by some margin and well ahead of Viney. Jack then has the arrogance to come out and say the midfield plays selfishly, but seems to excuse himself, easily our most selfish mid. If we lose Oliver and keep Jack, our club is going nowhere.

Completely agree mate. Ridiculous how harsh some judge him. I hope Goodwin's not in the same camp as some of our supporters.

Welcome to the football world, Geelong. Same thing happened with us and Elliott last year. It happens. Get on with it.

He doesn't put any sort of defensive pressure on his opponents.

It might be if Phillips is squeezed out. Nev is still contracted for another year.

I reckon this might mean we go for Phillips and trade him with Jetta. Be interesting to see.

Let's just put it this way. If we haven't re-signed him by Round 1 I'll be worried. It will also have a destabilising effect on the club. So Oliver and his management ought to think about that.

Whilst that forwardline could work, I think we need to be far more innovative and go harder at some zippy forwards on the fringe of other teams and we need an x factor match winner in the mix too. IMV we can't play Fritsch and Melksham in the same forwardline, and I think Goodwin realised this by the end of the year. So they either both need to invent themselves or we can't play both. I'd be keeping Charlie on the list and trying to play him between midfield and half forward, but we need to get consistency out of our forwardline. Brown, Weideman and Fritsch is quite a potent three target set up. Kozzie will be better next year, but we need 3 or 4 others that can apply pressure and x factor to the set up. Jackson is apart of that mix too.

I wasn't clear about this, but now that it seems McDonald will move on, I was thinking of things in term of balance and greater trade value. Happy for Weideman to stay.

I'd take Thomas. Definitely an upgrade on what we have.

Hibberd - May - Lever Smith - Tomlinson - Salem Polec - Oliver - Langdon Phillips - etc etc We'll have room for runners. Add those three and our outside speed finally compliments our inside ball winners.

Not talking about you mate, it's just a general theme of some Demonlanders posting speculation without properly engaging with what has been reported.

An absolute must, mate.